An RCMP officer talks with a local resident before escorting them home at a roadblock in Portapique, N.S. on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. RCMP say at least 22 people are dead after a man who at one point wore a police uniform and drove a mock-up cruiser, went on a murder rampage in Portapique and several other Nova Scotia communities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

UPDATE: RCMP give all clear after report of shots in Halifax

RCMP have given the all clear after investigating reports of shots fired in two Halifax suburbs.

The police say they extensively searched the area and found no evidence of shots having been fired.

They say they will continue to patrol the area.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Nova Scotia has issued an emergency alert advising people to shelter in place after reports of shots fired in two Halifax suburbs.

The RCMP say they are on the scene following separate reports in Hammonds Plains and Hubley.

The emergency alert says police are investigating in a wooded area between the Haliburton Hills and Highland Park Heights subdivisions in relation to shots fired.

The alert said there has been an additional report of shots fired in the Omega Court area of Hubley.

There were also reports of a man being arrested at a Dartmouth store, on the other side of the city.

The emergency alert comes after authorities were criticized for not issuing a similar provincewide warning during a weekend shooting rampage that left 22 people dead in northern and central Nova Scotia.

The incident in Dartmouth wasn’t part of the emergency alert issued by the province.

Bryan Corkery, a chef who was making a purchase at the Canadian Tire in Dartmouth Crossing, said he saw a man with what appeared to be a handgun or a replica of a handgun in his pocket go into the store after a conversation in the parking lot.

He said in an interview that customers were cleared from the store without incident.

“I saw the man with the gun in his pocket exiting the store at exactly the same time as the police showed up … and he was then arrested at his car,” Corkery said.

The 46-year said there’s a lot of tension in the city due to the global pandemic and the mass shooting in central Nova Scotia.